Shorten, unions boss at odds over the law

Bill Shorten has urged the peak trade union movement to push for changes to workplace laws after its new secretary argued there is no problem breaking "unjust" ones.

Sally McManus drew criticism from government members after making the comments just hours after she was elected.

On Thursday she released a statement insisting the country has been built by working people who had the courage to stand up to unjust rules.

"Every single Australian benefits from superannuation, Medicare, the weekend and minimum wages - these were all won by our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents taking non-violent so-called illegal industrial action," she said.

But workers only take such action when the issue is one of justice, like ensuring safety on worksites, a fair day's pay and to improve rights for working people.

"Australian unions are committed to changing the laws at work because they are no longer strong enough to guarantee and protect workers' rights," she said.

New ACTU boss Sally McManus. (Supplied)

"We will do so through advocating changes to the laws and rules that govern the workplace."

Related Articles

In her first major television interview after being elevated from vice-president, Ms McManus said she believed in the rule of law when it was fair but when it's unjust there wasn't a problem breaking it.

"This is an extraordinary admission by a newly minted union leader that she believes she is above the law and that unions can pick and choose when they obey the law and when they do not," she said.

But Mr Shorten said he disagreed with Ms McManus and that people who didn't like a law should change the government and then change the law.

"That is the way to do business, not to break the law," he told reporters in Hobart.

Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne was unrelenting, saying her comments showed she was not up to the job.

"What Sally McManus has said is the kind of anarchic Marxist claptrap we used to hear from anarchists at Adelaide University in the 1980s," he told ABC radio.

"If that's what the secretary of the ACTU thinks, she has no place being there and she should resign and give the job to someone who has a modern, forward-looking view."

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief James Pearson said Ms McManus' comments were "disturbing" on the first day of her appointment.

He welcomed Mr Shorten's rejection of the secretary's comments.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the comments were outrageous, arguing Bill Shorten should disown them and Ms McManus should retract and apologise.

"We are a nation government by the rule of law. All of our freedoms depend on the rule of law," he told Sydney's 2GB Radio.

"What she is saying is you only have to obey the law when it suits you. And if you're big and wealthy enough, and you've got a baseball bat in one hand and can threaten people like the CFMEU does, then you don't have to worry about the law."